University of Michigan

In the fall of 1934, Haag initiated his Ph.D. studies at the University of Michigan under E.C. Case, from whom Haag received one of only two A’s Case had awarded in the previous sixteen years. On the strength of Case’s recommendation, Haag was invited to serve a fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, though later circumstances prevented his accepting.

WALKER: So you then decided that you would take his University of Michigan assistantship.

HAAG: Well I decided I’d like to say, “Hey! I’m ready to come . . .!” Show you again, I was somewhat naive about how assistantships were scattered around. Well of course I got a polite letter back, saying “Well, we’ve got other alternates we’ll have to award this to.” And it was signed by a gentleman named Erman Cowles Case, one of probably the four top vertebrate paleontologists in the world.
It just by sheer chance happened that one of the professors in the geology department at Kentucky was going to Michigan; he was going to Lansing. So I hitched a ride with him to Lansing, then hitchhiked to Ann Arbor, and went in to see E.C. Case. And I’m proud to say that before I left there, I had that assistantship.